For their best fake Panerai Radiomir Composite Marina Militare 8 Giorni PAM 339 model the Florence-based watchmaking giant decided to use a case made of aluminum-based ceramic. During the current SIHH 2010 trade fair, the Italian brand has presented a number of watches with their mechanisms packed inside ceramic cases of different color and composition.
Alumina is also sometimes used in bullet-proof vests in form of ceramic tiles glued together to form a XXI-century mail armor, so the choice of the material for this military-themed watch is more than justified. In its press release Panerai doesn’t go into details about the technology used to make the case or the particular type of ceramic, but, looking at the photos of the watch, I can make an educated guess that this is an aluminum oxide aka alumina widely used in aerospace industry and motor sports thanks to its extreme hardness and remarkably high melting point of 2072 C°.
Sporting one of Panerai’s notorious Manifattura movements — the Caliber P.2002/7 in this particular case, a three spring barrel hand-wound movement that the brand has introduced only last year in its attempt to finally get rid of its dependency on ETA-sourced blank mechanisms, — the Swiss-made Panerai watch replica is on the larger side of the family.
To be frank, the movement would look absolutely ridiculous if only the Italian watchmakers weren’t wise enough to equip the watch with a solid case back, which is, too, crafted from the same ceramic material.
Although the 31mm x 6.6mm movement is, too, quite large compared to most Swiss made hand-wound calibers, it doesn’t take a great deal of space inside the rugged 47 mm case, which basically means that in this particular the size is dictated primarily by a decision made by the brand’s marketing department: apparently, the market for oversized military-style monsters is still hot.
Well, it would still look terrific on a wrist of some special task force operative, if he could afford such an expensive time-measuring device: at this time, Panerai plans to offer the watch at a list price of $15,000. Although quite high, the price still seems to be justified by the composite material that was used to make this PAM339 model and the in-house mechanism that powers it.
As usual, Panerai doesn’t say a word about the case’s thickness, but rest assured: it is a one hell of a hamburger, although a well-proportioned one: if you spend some decent time in a gym, the timekeeper will possibly look good on your wrist.
UPDATE: Here is a short video giving you the idea how the high quality Panerai copy watch looks in the real life: